"Anytime you come across a checkpoint, it raises your awareness and consciousness that you don't need to be out there driving after drinking," said Darrell Jernigan, director of the Governor's Highway Safety Program.
Another wakeup call: Stepping inside one of the state's fancy mobile Breath Alcohol Testing units known as BATmobiles.
"We get whatever that person's alcohol level as the time of the stop," said BAT Coordinator Kevin Dean. "There's no delay."
You get two chances with the intoxilizer. They take the lowest reading. If you blow .08 or above, you're going to jail.
During the 2003 "Booze and Lose it Campaign" 13,000 drunk drivers went to jail, the most since 1993. Jernigan attributes the arrests to more checkpoints and more resources like two new BATmobiles.
And there's a payoff: alcohol related crashes and deaths have gone down in the past four years since the state stepped up its efforts.
For the rest of this story, watch Wednesday's WRAL News at 11 p.m.
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